Microsoft (MSFT) this week unveiled a new program that will allow managed service providers (MSPs) to directly control their customer subscriptions and provide tech support to customers for the software giant’s cloud-based version of its popular productivity suite, Office 365.

The Cloud Solution Provider program, which Microsoft announced during Worldwide Partner Conference 2014 (WPC14) in Washington DC, also enables MSPs to provide one monthly bill for both partner and Microsoft services.

“This is a true cloud reseller program,” John Case, corporate vice president for the Microsoft Office Division, told WPC14 attendees during a keynote address on Monday. “We’ve taken a lot of feedback from you on this. Partners in the program will be able to directly provision customer subscriptions and provide one monthly bill for partner services and Microsoft services together.”

The move to letting partners own the paper on end customers of Office 365 is a long time coming. A year ago then channel chief John Roskill told WPC attendees that Office 365 Open — the version of the technology that let partners bill customers — would be expanded. The program launched in February 2013, after a few years of partner complaints that they were being cut out of Microsoft’s cloud productivity suite sales because Microsoft billed direct and owned the customer paper.

This week’s program expansion means that partners will be allowed to provide tech support for Office 365 to end customers and also to directly provision customer subscriptions. We are still looking into how exactly this program will be implemented.  The answer will provide key clues on how Microsoft’s new CEO, the cloud-centric Satya Nadella, plans to work with channel partners, particularly cloud service providers and MSPs.

What Case said

Case noted the Cloud Solution Provider program’s goal is “to attach a partner to every customer for onsite services, as well as follow-on work.”

The program offers a concierge-style service that could benefit MSPs, independent software vendors (ISVs) and hosting providers, according to Microsoft.

“[Partners] will also directly manage their customer subscriptions with in-product tools in the Partner Admin Center and own the technical support relationship,” Case wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft plans to expand this program to all of its cloud offerings, including Azure, CRM Online and Dynamics.

The Cloud Solution Provider program will be rolled out to select Microsoft partners in 48 countries over the next year.

“This is a big deal, the Cloud Solution Provider program,” Case told WPC14 attendees. “We’ll work with you country by country on who belongs in this program. It’ll be some different kinds of partners and some of our existing partners. For us, this capability is a major step forward in working with you on taking our businesses to the cloud.”

Additional insights from Executive Editor Jessica Davis.

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